About book Kwaidan: Stories And Studies Of Strange Things (2005)
I have started posting reviews again, at the request of my friends. If you like them, please take time to visit my blog also, where I talk about other things in addition to book reviews.I first encountered Lafcadio Hearn in an Anthology of American stories, in a weird little story: The Boy Who Drew Cats. It was a creepy Japanese fairy tale about a boy whose artistic productions (which were solely of a feline persuasion) came to life and did away with a goblin rat. As a short story, it did not possess much of a literary quality (IMO), so it was filed away somewhere in the back of my mind as a curious little oddity and forgotten.But Mr. Hearn’s name being very unusual, I remembered the story immediately when I saw this book, almost thirty years after I read it. In the meantime, my interest in myths, legends and fairy tales had become something of a passion. Moreover, I still carried my adolescent love of horror stories and had relatively recently been introduced to Japanese horror, more subtle and frightening than the American variety. So this book was something of a godsend.Lafcadio Hearn was something of an outsider in the West: his only talent, it seems, was writing gory newspaper reports. As with maverick Westerners in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, he found refuge in the mystic East; in this case Japan. It is the great fortune of all of us that Hearn decided to translate these creepy gems (which might have remained confined to Japan) for the rest of the world.***“Kwaidan” means “Ghost Stories”, which the first part of this collection contains (the second part contains “insect studies” from a “folkloric” standpoint which is not very interesting). These seventeen stories are the traditional “around-the-campfire” type, part and parcel of a people living in tune with their environment not yet spoilt by the encroaching monster of urbanisation. Being from a country full of wood-spirits and water-sprites myself, I could relate.There is Hoichi, the blind bard who is enchanted into playing for a company of ghosts and who is protected by the Buddhist sutras written upon his body (“Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi”); people turning into trees and trees, into people (“Ubazakura”, “Aoyagi”, “Jio-Roku-Sakura”); and goblins and ghosts galore (“Jikininki”, “Yuki-Onna”, “Rokuro-Kubi” etc.). There are also a couple based on the Japanese belief (now made famous by The Grudge) that a person who dies in great anger leaves behind an angry ghost. I was struck by the similarity of many of these tales to the stories I heard as a child in Kerala – one (“Mujina”) is an exact copy of an urban legend (well, with a different type of ghost) prevalent during the late eighties.In the second part, Hearn tries to compile legends, myths and beliefs about butterflies, ants and mosquitoes. These make mildly interesting reading, but lacks depth.A fast read, and a worthwhile one for readers who are interested in the beings which inhabit the primordial depths of our psyche.
I picked up this book because it was on sale at Barnes & Noble, and after reading it, I certainly understand why it was on the bargain racks.I want to start by saying that the majority of these collected stories are really quite good, and illustrate some of the diversity of Japanese folklore--not all of them were frightening, but they were definitely interesting. Furthermore, there is some absolutely gorgeous artwork throughout this book...however, there are caveats to both of these points, which explain the low rating.Before I touch on those, I do want to say that the quality of the English translation here is lacking. Grammatical problems are present throughout, from verbs in the wrong tense, to misspellings, to inexplicable punctuation (such as following a colon with a long dash, or mashing a comma and an ellipses together). Collectively, it makes this book feel very rushed and sloppy, and already had my rating hovering around 3.5 stars.But onto the other problems. With regards to the art, I'd almost say there's too much of it. Out of this 205 page book, 73 pages are taken up by full-page pictures, or placeholders with the name of the next story. Over 35% of Kwaidan is essentially filler.Then there's the other problem; I did say that the majority of these stories were quite good, for a reason. About three quarters of the way through, the author veers completely off track, and loses sight of what the focus of this book was supposed to be on: Japanese ghost stories. Instead, we randomly get a story about two Welsh boys looking for fairy rings, followed by three sections of "insect studies," which, while at least passingly Japanese, read like nothing so much as the author's stream of consciousness musings about nothing in particular. So, that's about another 50 pages or so that has little bearing on what Kwaidan was supposed to be about.Even if you take into account the fact that some of the page-filling artwork shows up in this irrelevant later section (perhaps ten pages' worth), that still means less than half the book is actually devoted to Japanese ghost stories. I feel very mislead, and while the actual folklore that's contained here is quite enjoyable, it's not nearly enough to counterbalance the glaring faults throughout.2.5 stars, rounded down, because of how little material is actually here.
Do You like book Kwaidan: Stories And Studies Of Strange Things (2005)?
-Title Strange Tales from Kwaidan-Time 10/24=30 minutes 10/25=30 minutes 10/26=30 minutes-7 words Japan, strange, spirit, ghost, heaven, funeral, awful-Discussion Question1.According to a part of this story, a women came back this world to bring back her letter after she died. What do you have a thing that you should take to heaven when you die?Well, in my view, if I were to die, I could not go to the heaven without some pictures of my family. This is why I want my family to put the pictures into my coffin. If I should go to the heaven without the pictures, I would come back to bring back them.2.Many spirits appeared in this story, for examole, "oni-bi". A man was surrounded by the "oni-bi"Have you ever experienced such a strange thing?Actually, when I was about 8 years old, my brother always cried at midnight. Then, my brother pointed out a place. Perhaps, my brother looked at something strange. However, after that, my brother never cried. Now, even if I ask him what he looked at, he tells me that he doesn't know and remember it.
—Naohiro Hotta
In my country people say that fear has big eyes but in that case we can equally say that it has slanting ones as well . Kwaidan then is an interesting collection of Japan weird stories illustrated with drawings of ghosts , demons and other unusual creatures typical of Japan folklore and myth .Written by Lafcadio Hearn , Japanese by choice and avocation , in times when eyes of the Japanese people were turned mainly to the West and the inhabitants of the land of the rising sun seemed to feel only contempt to own folk cultural heritage . For lovers of Japan culture and spine - chillers it is required reading . Stories are thrilling , hideous , sometimes touching but most of all highly atmospheric - just in time for a long autumn evening.
—Agnieszka
A collection of Japanese folklore that is every bit as haunting and weird as it presents itself. Lafcadio Hearn collected these (sometimes centuries old) stories from documents and storytellers during his stay in Japan in the early 19th century. The stories vivedly depict ghosts, goblins, demons, and other supernatural beings. The writing is a bit choppy at times, but that is understandable because Hearn was not a certified translator and mostly adapted as much as he could understand. I found no problem with that and loved this anthology greatly. Despite how creepy they seemed, it was at times beyond belief how amazing the stories were. A couple literally had me in awe and wonder. I would recommend as a light read. The collection wasn't that long and this edition contained quite a lot of beautiful full-page artworks.
—Yolanda Casica
